We've been loving our time playing with the Empirical Labs Arousor over the past few weeks and now the time has come for your chance to play with it !
Today 5th of May 2016 the Arousor Demo Version will be released over at the Empirical Labs website so head over and grab it at 12 noon sharp (Presumably in a USA Timezone).
In the meantime here is another little video of us playing with the Arousor on some Drums and below some wise words from Dave Derr in answer to one of the most asked questions about this plug-In, and you can See more demo videos here.
"Trust me when I say everything has been excruciatingly planned. It is NOT a direct Distressor emulation. BUT, we have always been able to match the sound to the brink of inaudibility to a Distressor, except OPTO and BRIT modes. There is already a Distressor, and besides differentiating products, there were soOOo many neat things I always wanted to do, so that from the start, this was never going to be a 1:1 Emulation.
And YES, I think without this Gearslutz rollout, I think people would have blindly bought a plugin called the Distressor over a new product named the AROUSOR. Sales were kind of guaranteed if it was decent, right? But I couldn't stand limiting myself with all the neat stuff that could be added and enhanced, and went about making a new product, one totally capable of all the things they loved in the Distressor... and a bit more.
I keep saying it, but this product isn't really "finished". It has been designed to be "evolutional". We are in this for the long run. Still... We hope you find it totally rocks right out of the gate!" - Dave Derr Of Empirical Labs
Details
As this plugin does all kinds of non-linear stuff, we had to employ a variety of techniques to minimize common digital artifacts found in almost all digital compressors/limiters etc. Unfortunately, these techniques are costly as far as processing, and one has to streamline certain DSP processes for less CPU load without sacrificing any audio quality. Ironically, sometimes stuff that is hard in Analog is easy in Digital, and sometimes stuff that is hard (or impossible) in Digital is easy in Analog. The first implementation of this plugin is “skeuomorphic”, i.e tries to imitate the look and feel of real world stuff. In this case, it is the look and feel of Empirical Labs hardware. But in Digital, whole universe opens up with interfaces. Suddenly things you could never do in the hardware world become simple. It’s a wonderland. The best part of getting this plugin now, is that more features are coming, including new processing and interface changes, but… the plugin will be backwards compatible. Get in on the special Initial Offering deal on our AROUSOR Plugin, and get these updates for free until 2020!
FEATURES
• Empirical Labs Classic Knee Compression in a Plugin… Finally!
• Foolproof operation – It is almost impossible to get a bad sound.
• Empirical Labs Famous White Knobs, with parameter readout and direct entry.
• Proprietary Empirical Labs Detector modeling. High resolution.
• Broadband Saturator, controllable by user. A novel approach was used to allow amazing control over peaks.
• Unique AtMod™ Attack Modification Control. Changes the shape of the initial attack, and can lengthen attack times in a different manner than the ATTACK control.
• HP Sidechain EQ
• BP Sidechain EQ
• Rivet, a brick wall ratio great on room mics, and for skimming peaks.
• Linkable with the stereo version.
• BLEND Control – Mix in the dry signal with the compressed one.
• Mix “Dry Level” control. Adjust this control so that full WET and full DRY have the same apparent level.
• 20 Lock n Load Presets, finely tuned and named intuitively. More coming down the line.
• Backwards compatible features coming.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
WINDOWS
Windows 7 or higher
iLok 2 USB key and PACE iLok License Manager
Mac OS X 10.7 or higher
iLok 2 USB key and PACE iLok License Manager
32/64-bit AAX (OSX and Windows)
64-bit VST2 (OSX and Windows)
64-bit VST3 (OSX and Windows)
64-bit AU (OSX)AAX system minimum requirements are Pro Tools 10.3.5 and OSX 10.7 or higher; Windows 7 or higher.
AU may function on earlier systems, but will only be qualified for and supported with system minimum requirements of OSX 10.7 or higher.
Logic 9 is the reference AU host used for testing and verification.
VST may function on earlier systems, but will only be qualified for and supported with system minimum requirements of OSX 10.7 or higher;
Windows 7 or higher.
Cubase 6 is the reference VST host used for testing and verification.Price $349
